The Dominican Republic is celebrating the gold medal Félix Sánchez, also know as “Super Félix” (@elsupersanchez [es]), won at the 400 hurdles event in the London 2012 Olympic Games. His achivement gives the Caribbean country its second Olympic gold medal. Sanchez had already made history by winning the first Olympic gold for the Dominican Republic in Athens 2004.

Along with Sanchez's gold medal, Dominicans are also exultant for the silver medal won by Luguelín Santos (@LuguelinSantos [es]) in the 400 mts. race. It is the first time that two Domincans win medals in Athletics events at the same Olympic Games, something that has caused great excitment in the country.

Sánchez's victory came in a very special moment when the future of his career was uncertain. He suffered an injury in 2004 during a race in the Golden European League that forced him to stay away from competitions for a while. When he came back his performance wasn't as good as before so many start suggesting he should retire. This, along with his age (34), was the reason his gold medal was a surprise for many.

But maybe the key story came just before he competed in the Olympic Games of Beijing 2008, when Sánchez received the terrible news of the death of his beloved grandmother. This affected his performance during those games. In fact, one of the most emotional moments [es] during his triumph last August 6 in London was when he pulled out a picture of his grandmother that he had put close to his chest, and dropped to the ground to kiss it. “Super Félix” also had the word “grandmother” written on his running shoes, and during the award ceremony he sobbed.

Dominican netizens have expressed their feelings for Félix Sánchez through Twitter [es]:

2 comments

[…] to win an Olympic medal of any kind. James led a Caribbean sweep of the medals in this event: Luguelin Santos from the Dominican Republic won the Silver (44.46) and Lalonde Gordon from Trinidad & Tobago […]